Customer Service Manager Training

The customer service manager is one of the most important people in any good business, directly managing the people who provide service to customers. A good customer service manager can give the business a great reputation and lots of good word of mouth; a poor customer service manager can actually mobilize communities against the company. Here are five of the most important skills a customer service manager should have.

Recruiting

Good customer service representatives are hard to find, while mediocre reps are plentiful. The smart customer service manager will always be recruiting, either to fill existing openings or to upgrade the skills of her staff. When recruiting, the customer service manager will be interested in skilled, committed workers--not just warm bodies.

Training

Of course, recruiting the most impressive team of representatives won't help at all if those reps don't immediately receive adequate training on company products, services, policies and rules of customer engagement. The good customer service manager makes sure his employees understand and buy in to all of this.

Listening

One of the most important skills for any customer service representative (or manager) is listening. Anybody involved with business customer service must be an expert at asking penetrating, open-ended questions (questions that can't be answered with yes or no), then being quiet enough to truly listen to customer concerns.

Judgment

The customer may not always be right, contrary to the old truism, and customer service managers must train on good judgment. There's a difference between doing right by your customer and being exploited by your customer. The customer service manager needs to know the difference.

Creativity

The best customer service managers train themselves and their staff on creativity. Sometimes, the best solutions to customer problems are not the ones in the corporate guidebook, but rather creative solutions that resolve the exact situation most effectively.